Heart, Brain and Mental Health Disparities for LGBTQ People of Color

“Psychological scientists and clinicians, proud to serve our racial/ethnic and LGBTQ communities, now use powerful theories and methods to advance our communities’ health. This visionary volume makes our discoveries more widely known, and frames a bold agenda for the next generation. Everyone committed to ending health disparities for LGBTQ People of Color will be empowered and excited by this book.”— Richard Ruth, The George Washington University, US
“This innovative text presents current state-of-the-science research focusing on LGBTQ communities of color, and promises to inform research, theory, and practice in the important area of health inequalities. It is an essential text for those of us researching ethnic and sexual disparities in health."— Rusi Jaspal, Nottingham Trent University, UK
This timely edited collection presents a holistic and biopsychosocial analysis of LGBTQ People of Color well-being, focused on heart, brain, and mental health, and employs a unique incorporation of minority stress, intersectionality, and allostatic load frameworks. Bringing together established and emerging academics, its authors present a critical analysis of the latest research that encompasses the study of both risk and resilience factors in LGBTQ People of Color health. Across the book, they highlight the precise nature of the behavioral health disparities experienced by these communities, but further, they reveal the unique roles of intersectional discrimination and structural stigma as mechanisms for these disparities. With chapters also dedicated to federal policies and public health, this multidisciplinary work marks a seminal contribution that will pave the way for further advances in research, theory, and practice. It offers a valuable resource on underserved populations that will appeal to researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of health psychology, public health, epidemiology, sociology, health sciences and medicine.
James J. García is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of La Verne, USA. Dr. García is an Editorial Board Member for scientific journals in racial/ethnic LGBTQ health, sits on the board of community-based organizations and is part of the American Heart Association’s Stroke Council.